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I'm Alex.

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Alex McCaughran

About Me

I'm a Full-Stack Engineer specialising in cloud-native SaaS platforms for regulated environments. I have a track record of owning large, complex features end-to-end: most recently designing and delivering 7 core modules and production LLM integrations for a CRM platform used by over 10,000 financial advisers.

I thrive in fast-paced environments where I can exercise extreme autonomy and pragmatic problem-solving.

I've built my foundation of extreme resilience and time management by earning a First-Class Honours (1:1) degree in Software Engineering while working full-time, engineering production data platforms for one of the UK's biggest football clubs. Today, I bring that same relentless drive to fast-moving remote teams.

Alex loves to...
visitor@alexs-site:~/Hobbies$ β–ˆ

Projects

Selected personal projects and case studies demonstrating my E2E delivery capabilities, across architecture, backend, frontend, and integrations. See the full list on my projects page.

PHPLaravelLivewireSQLSCSS/SassInsomnia
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Remote-Only.dev

A large-scale remote job aggregation platform that ingests, normalises, and enriches listings from multiple APIs using LLM-powered classification and advanced filtering.

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JavaSpringSQLAndroid
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HistoryHike

My final University project. A location-based walking and historical education game.

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ReactJavaSpringSQL
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Shopping List Generator

A full-stack recipe-ingredient aggregation tool.

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Work Timeline

I've rapidly progressed from service and data roles into full-stack product engineering while completing a Computing & IT (Software) degree alongside full-time work. Today at Defaqto, I independently deliver high-impact features for regulated SaaS platforms and own outcomes fully.

2013 β€” 2020
2020 β€” 2024
2021 β€” 2022
2022 β€” 2024
2024 β€” 2025
2025 β€” Now

Tech Skills

These are the technologies I use most to ship production features quickly and reliably, from backend-heavy systems work to full-stack product delivery.

Backend

PHP

PHP

Laravel

Laravel

SQL

SQL

Java

Java

Spring

Spring

C#

C#

Azure

Azure

Python

Python

NodeJS

NodeJS

Frontend

HTML

HTML

CSS

CSS

SCSS/Sass

SCSS/Sass

Livewire

Livewire

JavaScript

JavaScript

Svelte

Svelte

React

React

Vue

Vue

Misc

Git

Git

Docker

Docker

Linux

Linux

Postman

Postman

JIRA

JIRA

Traits

I bring a calm, delivery-focused approach to high-stakes work, with clear communication and strong ownership from planning through release.

I perform best in high-pressure environments where priorities move quickly, requirements are ambiguous, and dependable execution matters.

  • Feature ownership

  • Delivery under pressure

  • Stakeholder communication

  • Analytical decision-making

  • Incident response

  • Pragmatic problem-solving

  • System reliability mindset

  • Adaptability

  • Strong collaboration

  • Attention to detail

  • Technical documentation

  • Continuous improvement

  • Product thinking

University

I completed a First Class Honours (1:1) degree while working full-time, demonstrating sustained discipline and execution over multiple years in parallel with professional delivery.

The course strengthened core engineering fundamentals I still use daily, including architecture, object-oriented design, algorithms, APIs, cloud systems, and database design.

My final project scored 90%, and the strongest outcomes came from applying rigorous technical thinking to real-world constraints and delivery trade-offs.